Pig

Pig is a recurring image in the line texts, where it gives unstable or uncertain situations a concrete shape. In one passage it is a lean animal that will not stay still unless restrained; in another it appears under a load of mud, or as part of a ghost-filled carriage, in a fearful misreading that gives way to recognition of a near relative.

Restraint and Disorder

In the first line of Coming to Meet, the subject is to be held as though a carriage were secured to a metal drag. The warning is conditional: firm correctness brings good fortune if the subject is kept in place, but movement in any direction invites evil. The image then shifts to a lean pig that keeps jumping about, making the danger of failed restraint vivid as restless, repeated motion.

The commentary sharpens the animal image into a lesson about government and order. The figure of the pig stands for a dangerous presence that must be held back; a metal drag alone is not enough, and the carriage must also be tied to something steadfast. Internal and external restraints are both required. The animal is therefore not developed as an independent creature with its own perspective: its jumping supplies the text with an image of disorder that political discipline must contain.

Misrecognition and Recognition

In the top line of Opposition, a solitary figure sees the subject of the third line as a pig carrying a load of mud, or imagines a carriage full of ghosts. The image belongs to a moment of disunion and danger: he first bends his bow against the apparent threat, then unbends it when he discovers that the other is not an attacker but a near relative.

The encounter reverses its own fearful appearance. What seemed monstrous or hostile proves to be kin, and the movement from armed suspicion to recognition makes possible a more benign outcome: going forward, the subject meets with rain and good fortune. Here the pig is part of a mistaken vision rather than a force that acts in its own right. Across the two passages, its significance lies in how human judgment responds to instability—first by restraining a restless threat, then by correcting fear when apparent enmity proves to conceal kinship.